The Supreme Court Monday reserved its verdict on pleas of Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot alleging duplication of names in the voters’ lists of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and seeking random verification of VVPAT machines in the upcoming elections in these States.
A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan concluded the hearing during which senior lawyers Kapil Sibal, representing the Congress leaders and Vikas Singh, counsel for the Election Commission of India (ECI), traded charges.
Singh said attempts have been made to malign important constitutional institution of Election Commission and get favourable order by fabricating documents by alleging discrepancies in voters’ lists.
“I stand by what I had said earlier,†the senior lawyer said, adding that the poll panel had taken note of the allegations of the Congress party and undertaken corrective measures with regard to discrepancies in the voters list which was evident from EC’s communication of June 8 this year.
Despite this, the Congress party alleged discrepancies in their petition in September and this was a clear attempt to malign the institution, he said, adding that the leaders have “casually filed something†to “malign†and “denigrate†the poll panel.
Sibal strongly rebutted the submissions of the poll panel and referred to alleged discrepancies and duplication in the voters list and referred to the illustrations of four assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh.
